- 1915 - Rookie Carmen “Specs” Hill won his first start, 5-0, over the NY Giants in the second game of a twin bill at Forbes Field. Hill pitched eight years for the Pirates, winning 22 games in 1927 for the NL pennant winners. He also became the second MLB pitcher to wear glasses; Lee Meadows, who became a Bucco teammate of Hill in the twenties, was the first big leaguer to sport peepers earlier in the season. The Bucs won the opener 9-6 behind Wilbur Cooper.
- 1966 - Willie Stargell was featured on the cover of The Sporting News for the story “Plundering Pirate.” Pops had a banner year, hitting .315 with 33 HR and 102 RBI while earning his third straight All-Star nod.
- 1977 - Frank Taveras tied and then broke Max Carey’s single season team record of 63 stolen bases, which was set in 1916, during a 6-3 Bucco victory over the Expos in Montreal (Omar Moreno stole 96 sacks in 1980). Scheduled starter Jerry Reuss was scratched after warming up, and his short-notice replacement Ed Whitson pitched five innings for the win as Goose Gossage tossed the final four frames to earn his 23rd save.
- 1996 - Manager Jim Leyland announced that he’d leave the Pirates at the end of the season. The two-time Manager of the Year quickly found a new job as skipper of the Florida Marlins, signing a five-year deal with the Fish on October 4th and then winning the World Series.
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| Jim Leyland (photo via MLB.com) |
- 2001 - After a week of mourning following the Twin Towers attack, MLB baseball resumed. At PNC Park, the Pirates handed out "I Love NY" buttons to fans (the scheduled flag giveaway was delayed when the manufacturer couldn’t meet the dateline), a banner in left field read, "NYC, USA, We Are Family" and the Bucs wore flags on their sleeves and decals on their helmets. Fans signed a giant poster of support for NYC and over the course of two days, nearly $300,000 was donated for various related causes such as the NYC Police & Firemens pension and for groups active in NYC’s recovery. The baseball faithful weren’t quite ready to return to normalcy - over 25,000 tickets had been sold for the game, but only about 8,000 folk showed up at the yard, passing through a new, heightened security protocol. One fan told the Post Gazette “It’s going to be hard to cheer. How can you cheer when people are still buried? But life needs to go on.” The game started with an ovation for the teams - the Mets, appropriately, were in town - and chants of "USA, USA." NY won the game 4-1, scoring three times in the ninth to break open a tight game started by Todd Ritchie and Al Leiter.
- 2009 - The USA's Pedro Alvarez became the fifth player to hit three home runs in a single Baseball World Cup game. El Toro drove in six runs during a 14-3 defeat of Taiwan on the road to the US’ 2009 BWC crown. Alvarez, a Vanderbilt All-American and the Pirates first-round pick of 2008, made his MLB debut the following year.
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| Pedro Alvarez 2010 Topps Pro Debut |
- 2015 - Rookie IF Jung-Ho Kang broke his leg and tore a ligament in his knee when he was upended by the Cubs' Chris Coghlan on a take-out slide in a game with playoff implications at PNC Park. Kang and Coghlan both accepted it as part of the game though JHK missed the rest of the season and didn’t play again until May of 2016. The Bucs lost the game, 9-5, but held off Chicago in the race to host the Wild Card Game, which Chicago won behind Jake Arrieta.
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